Tag: Baseball Lives

Baseball Lives by Mike Bryan was a wonderful book that I read while attending college.

Each of the book’s 55 chapters was devoted to first-person accounts of men and women who make a living working in professional baseball. The spectrum was immense and their perspectives were diverse. Bryan provided a forum for an owner, a general manager, a coach, a scout, and players who fulfilled various roles on a team. He spoke with a sportswriter, a broadcaster, and a public address announcer. He also talked to a bus driver, a team doctor, a seat vendor, and a groundskeeper.

All of Bryan’s subjects were thoughtful and intelligent and some were quite opinionated.

The book made me aware that the wide world of baseball extends far past the field. These diverse groups of people stitched together are what make up the game of baseball. Each group has its own perspective and its own biases.

So how silly is it that the writers, specifically active members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, a tiny sliver of the baseball universe, are the sole arbiters of who gains membership in sports’ ultimate club?

The system is flawed. Too many people who are part of the process are not qualified and too many people shut out of the process are highly qualified .

Some of the balloting rules are nonsensical.

The BBWAA tightened its voting eligibility rules in 2007, But still, 440 ballots were cast last year and that’s way too many. Membership in the BBWAA is reserved for those who have covered baseball for at least 10 or more consecutive years and who have been active within the last decade. Membership is extended to sports editors and general sports columnists.

Some are well informed and take their votes very seriously. Others don’t.

Some solutions?

The current versions of the veterans committee – there are three that represent different eras of the game’s history and consider players who may have been overlooked on the writers’ ballot – should be done away with. There should only be one way into the Hall. The 75 percent election requirement should be retained, but other ballot rules should be scrapped.

There shouldn’t be a five-year waiting period. Players should be eligible upon retirement. There shouldn’t be a minimum annual vote requirement to remain on the ballot nor a maximum of 10 years on the ballot. Anybody who has played in the majors or contributed to baseball in a significant way should beopen to consideration.

I like the idea of a committee participating in the voting and the processes the the Hall of Fame board of directors uses to select individuals to participate in the voting could be emulated on a greater scale.

The super committee should be a better cross section of baseball than is represented by the BBWAA.

The writers should be represented on the committee but so should former players, managers and coaches, executives, scouts, umpires, broadcasters, and historians.

This would open up the process to former players who have a passionand appreciation for the game’s history like Ryne Sandberg, Lou Piniella, and Tim McCarver. Some of the game’s brightest minds like former managers Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa, and Joe Torre would have input. Umpires like Doug Harvey and Bruce Froemming, men who have witnessed so much of the game’s history first-hand, would get to weigh in. Vin Scully, who was announcing games long before most readers of this post were born, would be involved. Scully and fellow broadcaters like Bob Uecker and Marty Brennaman have witnessed many more games than most of the writers who voted this year. And it would be great to get input from knowledgable historian/scholars of the game like Bill James, John Thorn, Ken Burns, and even George Will.

That’s eight groups. Twelve individuals should be selected to each group. That’s enough to fit into a big conference room. The voting process could begin with each subcommittee meeting to discuss the merits of prospective Hall of Famers. Then the committees could come together, presentations to the entire group could be made, there could be time for more discussion and debate, and the voting could commence. Seventy-five percent of the vote would still be required for election.

The writers would still have their biases. So would the players (the pompous Joe Morgan comes to mind). And so would every group. But the different factions would work as a check-and-balance system and give everybody a more fair shake

Far too many of the BBWAA act as if their vote is a birth right. Under my proposal, it would become more of an honor. Individuals would be eligible to serve on the Hall of Fame voting committee only once every four years. A fresh perspective would be brought to the process on an annual basis.

It would be a more just way of determining Hall of Fame worthiness.
I also have many ideas of how to reform and improve the American political system. But I’ll save those ideas for another place and another time.

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On This Date

1954: After telling reporters his team had little chance of finishing in the first division, manager Phil Cavarretta was fired by the Chicago Cubs. The 36 year-old player-manager, who compiled a 169-213 record during his three years at the helm, was the first manager to be relieved of his duties during spring training.

Checking In

Denton True "Cy" Young, who won a record 511 games during his 22-year career (1890-1911), was born in Gilmore, Ohio on March 29, 1867.

Checking Out

Jimmy Archer - a strong-armed catcher known for his superior defensive skills during his 13-year career (1904, 1907-18) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and Brooklyn Dodgers - died at age 74 in Milwaukee from a blocked coronary artery on March 29, 1958.